Movie Review - Her (2013) by Spike Jonze
It happens very rarely with me that directly after watching a movie, I want to write something about it. Usually, I procrastinate a lot while putting my thoughts into words. But not every film is Her. I know many people who straight-up hate this film and feel that nothing really happens in the movie, so I just wanted to lay my thoughts out on why this movie affects me so much on an emotional level. Her, if simply put, is a romance/sci-fi film where we follow our main character, Theodore, who falls in love with this newly developed artificially intelligent operating system. Although on a surface level, it might feel like a film about a man falling in love with his computer, but it’s way more than that. Her is a film about people, and how we evolve through our relationships with others. It’s about accepting the fact that people that we love will evolve too, but not in the ways we expect them to; growing together without growing apart. Theodore, whose last marriage ended due to his failure in accepting this fact about his ex-wife, gets into a relationship with Samantha, who, as an AI, is constantly evolving. This relationship serves as a bridge for him towards coming in terms with the change that people around him go through and letting others in, in his loneliness, which is the film’s other big theme. Throughout the film, we see Theodore separating himself from people, failing to share how he feels. This is communicated beautifully with some amazing visual storytelling in the movie, with the wide shots featuring him detached from his surroundings. Yet, towards the end of the film, in a moment of melancholy instead of being alone, he chooses to be with his friend Amy and the final shot of the film, which is also a wide shot; this time involves the two of them and not just him alone.
Apart from the gorgeous cinematography in the film, it’s strongest suits is its excellent screenplay. You can feel that so much thought was spent on every single line of the film. The relationship between Theodore and Samantha, which on paper might sound like the most ridiculous thing, is written in such an elegant way that you can believe every part of it. Another thing that has a huge contribution in realizing this odd concept is the brilliant performances by almost everyone in the film. I think it’s easy to overlook Joaquin Phoenix’s performance in this film as compared to his other roles like in Joker or the Master as it does not involve him being a psychopath and is much more of a reserved role. But in my opinion in Her, he is as good as he has ever been in any of his other roles. He brings a very raw feel to his character and can communicate so much about his character just through his face and body language. Talking about the performances, it would be a crime to not talk about Scarlett Johansson, who plays the role of Samantha and is almost as good as Joaquin here. Since she plays an AI in the film, we only get to hear her, but her voice acting is so good that you never miss her physical presence.
I am barely just scratching the surface here; I can go on and on about the different themes in this film and its sheer technical brilliance. But I would like to conclude by saying that Her, although a film that takes place in the future and involves artificially intelligent operating systems, is the most human film I have ever seen, and is the reason why I love watching movies.
Theme by Ankit Sultana. Yi Yi illustration at the bottom right by Anna Vignet.
